1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic publishing and, more particularly, to portable electronic reading apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an electronic book using bi-modal, bistable molecular imaging technology, sometimes referred to in the art as “nanotechnology.”
2. Description of Related Art
Portable reading material today is made available through books, magazines, newspapers, and various other forms of hard copy using a colorant (e.g., ink or toner) on paper. Readable informational text and image content (hereinafter simply “content” or “document content”) published in these forms is of a sufficiently high resolution and contrast to be read easily over prolonged periods of time without eye discomfort. Such commercial grade high resolution print is over 600 dots per inch. Portability allows individual user preference for comfortable reading in locations of choice. Moreover, body positions may be periodically varied to change reading distance and posture to maintain personal comfort. Generally, such hard copy print media requires high costs in printing, binding, warehousing, and distribution. Since these factors require a relatively lengthy time expenditure between content generation and availability to the reader, the content of the media is often not contemporaneous; even newsprint is in reality yesterday's or last week's news. The cost is normally amortized through a single reading, after which the book or document is physically stored or discarded. Moreover, hard copy is not an environmentally friendly technology, either as to raw materials and print media manufacturing or waste management.
Computers, on the other hand, provide virtually instantaneous distribution of content through electronic means, such as the Internet, at significantly reduced cost to the reader. (The term “Internet” is used herein as a generic term for a collection of distributed, interconnected networks (ARPANET, DARPANET, World Wide Web, or the like) that are linked together by a set of industry standard protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, UDP, and the like) to form a generally global, distributed network. Private and proprietary intranets are also known and are amenable to conforming uses of the present invention.) Computer displays, however, provide far less comfortable reading at significantly lower resolution when compared to hard copy print media. Cathode ray tube displays have low portability and require substantially stationary body positioning for reading at fixed focal length, leading to comparatively rapid eye strain and posture discomfort. Portable computer liquid crystal displays (LCD) allow somewhat greater portability, but at the expense of display contrast, off-axis viewability, and higher cost. The at least one order of magnitude lower resolution of computer displays in comparison to commercial print media commonly prevents the reader from seeing a full page of the comparable hard copy document at one time. In part, the further cost of lower resolution of portable displays stems from the difficulty of matrix addressing at higher resolution. Normally, the reader must use button controls to scroll the displayed image down the document page to read its contents. When a long document is downloaded, as from the Internet, the reader will commonly print the contents to gain back the aforementioned hard copy print media benefits. Such printing, however, adds local printing cost to the process for documents that are still commonly read once and discarded. Current computer solutions are contrary to the needs of book, magazine and newspaper distribution.
There is a need for a paradigm shift in the concept of reading media and media distribution and for providing portable electronic apparatus.
One exemplary solution is the fixed screen electronic book such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,954 (Mar. 14, 2000), by McMahon, for a PORTABLE HAND-HELD READING DEVICE. McMahon uses a convention LCD display. The described device is limited both in size, resolution, viewing angle limitations, battery life, and general versatility by inherent limitations of the fixed screen display.
Another exemplary solution is the PORTABLE ELECTRONIC APPARATUS proposed by Phillipps in U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,988 (Aug. 22, 2000) for a folded display, hinged to be opened and closed in the manner of a book. This solution requires two LCD displays In addition to the limitations as mentioned with respect to the McMahon patented device, the Phillipps apparatus would have a relatively heavy power demand to support the double LCD display requirements.
A third exemplary solution is proposed by Jacobson in U.S. Pat. No. 6,124,851 (Sep. 26, 2000) for an ELECTRONIC BOOK WITH MULTIPLE PAGE DISPLAYS. Jacobson has multiple page displays formed on flexible, thin substrates which use E-Ink Corporation's (assignee) microcapsule electronic ink (FIGS. 7A-7D therein) for typesetting each page, maintaining a “natural haptic and visual interface of . . . normal paper books.”
Moreover, with the paradigm shift as described, accessibility to electronic document service providers and document retrieval requires end-user devices having greater and easier accessibility to the content. Therefore, there is a need for a direct interface between the portable electronic reading apparatus and the content provider.
There is a need for an electronic reading apparatus solution providing a high resolution, high contrast, compact, portable, electronic book, exceeding the convenience of commercial print media and having a content access capability providing substantially instantaneous download capability.